Male Fertility

The ancient Chinese believed that one glance from a peacock could make a woman pregnant!   I love the arrogance of this beautiful bird, which is softened by the glint of loving desire in his eyes.

Alas, recent research published in 2017 presented the evidence of decreased sperm concentration in European males. The results alarmingly show that there has been a 50% decrease in mean sperm concentration over the past 40 years.  Previous studies also reveal that healthier sperm parameters are associated with a reduced risk of a wide range of diseases – whether they have children or not.  We are now more aware of how lifestyle and environmental factors can impact on sperm health, and here I would like to show how acupuncture, alongside some health tweaking, might help if you are trying for a family.

In my experience, it is usually the women who persuade the men to come along for acupuncture to help with sperm parameters, or to improve and optimise health in general whilst trying for a baby.  I very rarely have an enquiry from a man without this encouragement from his partner but hopefully as the public become more aware of the benefits of acupuncture this will change.  Come along guys!

The good news is that it takes 100 days for sperm to mature and with a few tweaks to  lifestyle, diet, and avoidance of environmental factors (wherever possible), along with a course of acupuncture we can perhaps enhance the quality and quantity of the sperm. Although we need more good quality trials before we can say for sure what changes acupuncture can make the current evidence looks very promising.  It is important to remember that the events in a man’s life will have an impact on the quality of the sperm he uses 3 months later so starting early is important!